In Memory
by Another of Skaro
Summary: Teddy was only a few weeks old when his parents died, but that doesn't mean he has no memories of them. One Christmas, he received a box from his godfather, full of phials of silvery liquid. As he made his way through the box, he discovered that he might be able to get to know his parents after all.
1. Christmas

**Just few things:**

 **1) I've tried to make sure that the stories fit with the book and I hope I've got all my facts right but sorry if I've made any mistakes.**

 **2) Sorry if I take ages to update. It can take a while but I** **will eventually.**

 **3) Very obvious but I'll say it anyway. I don't own Harry Potter.**

* * *

Teddy awoke and rubbed his eyes, blinking heavily as his eyes adjusted to the light.

"Morning, Teddy," mumbled Elliot, "and Happy Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," he replied, "our first at Hogwarts! Exciting, isn't it? Is Nate up yet?"

Nate wished them a Happy Christmas as he pulled aside the curtains and began examining the pile of presents at the foot of his bed. The two other boys did the same and selected the parcels that looked the most interesting.

After a few minutes the boys' usually spotless dormitory was littered with abandoned wrapping paper and gifts. Teddy pulled a blue Weasley jumper over his head and they all tucked into the big box of Molly's mince pies.

"Teddy! Look!" cried Elliot, "Nate's got something from Laurel Greenfield!" Teddy and Elliot burst into laughter although Nate looked far from amused.

"They're chocolates," he muttered, going slightly pink. Love potions had recently come back into fashion so the boys agreed to leave them aside and instead they ate the chocolates sent from Elliot's muggle aunt. Having eaten at least half the box (he had always loved chocolate) Teddy continued with his own stack of presents. This (rather large) pile included: a book called "Awesome Pranks for Metamorphmagi" from George; money and school supplies from Andromeda and some muggle books from Hermione, as well as other gifts from his family and friends.

"This is one of my favourite books," Nate said, picking up a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring.

"I'm surprised you've read it," said Elliot, "I didn't think you read books by muggle authors."

Nate and Teddy smiled at each other. Elliot hadn't grown up in the wizarding world.

"Perhaps you should have a look for him in the library," said Teddy, "you might find he's not as muggle as you might have thought."

They left their friend looking shocked and continued with their presents. Teddy opened a little, hand knitted bear with a note reading:

 _To Teddy,  
_ _Grandma's been teaching me how to knit and she helped me make this. Hope you like it. Do you know when we'll get to see you again? I haven't seen you since you left for school. Anyway, have a good Christmas!  
_ _From Vic._

He smiled at the little bear and set in on his bedside table, where it sat next to the Marauder's Map and a picture of his parents, who were smiling lovingly at the baby in their arms.

They heard a tapping at the window and Nate opened it to let in the owl that was outside. She flew over to Teddy's bed and let him take the note from her leg before settling herself on his pillow. She was a snowy owl called Eleanor that Harry had bought him from Diagon Alley earlier that year. Teddy threw her a piece of pastry from the mince pie he was eating and read the letter she'd delivered.

 _Dear Teddy,  
_ _I haven't sent your present by owl, as I wasn't sure you'd want to open it in front of your friends. Instead I've left it in Minerva's office and she'll give it to you, I'm sure you'll like it.  
_ _I hope you're enjoying yourself, Christmas at Hogwarts is always fun but if you change your mind and want to come back for dinner you can always ask Minerva for use of her fireplace. The kids would love to see you again. Hope to hear from you soon.  
_ _Love from Harry, Ginny, James, Albus and Lily._ (The last three names scrawled untidily by the children.)

He put down the letter and wondered what the present might be and why it couldn't be sent straight to him but thoughts of this were soon pushed from his mind by Elliot's suggestion of breakfast.

* * *

The boys walked into the great hall at least 20 minutes since they'd left their room as the corridors had been decorated for Christmas and the portraits were all in a very good mood so they couldn't help but become distracted. The great hall had been decorated with 12 trees and the walls were completely covered in holly and tinsel that changed between red, green and gold every few seconds. The tables were almost completely empty as most students chose to go home for the holidays, but their friends Sophie, Lara and Vyvyan Riggs were staying at school so they went to join them on the Ravenclaw table. As they sat down, Teddy realised the tables were covered with little colourful pixies, one of whom seemed to be playing a game with Sophie, who was chasing it around her plate with a spoon.

Lara and Vyvyan were (like most young witches and wizards) obsessed with quidditch and were in the middle of a very lively debate.

"I can't believe you think the Chudley Cannons are better than the Holyhead Harpies!" Lara cried.

"Yes! I do!" Vyvyan shouted back, "You know I'm right," he said, turning to his friends for support.

Nate sighed. "I'm not getting involved. Although I must say, Lara's right."

The discussion became louder and the language fouler until Teddy looked up from buttering his toast and saw Professor McGonagall standing behind Vyvyan, an eyebrow raised.

"Mr. Riggs, please refrain from-" she began, but the loud string of expletives he was currently yelling at his sister made it impossible to hear anything she was saying.

"MR. RIGGS STOP THAT RACKET AT ONCE."

The table went silent.

"What was that I heard you suggesting your sister did?"

Everyone fought to suppress laughter as they looked at Vyvyan, who was staring in horror at his plate.

"I… just. Um. I said she should… put some jam on her toast?"

"I thought that was what I heard. Anyway, the reason I came hear was not to discuss Miss Riggs' choice of breakfast, but to have a word with Mr. Lupin." She smiled fondly at Teddy.

"I believe I have something of yours in my office. How about coming up after you've eaten your breakfast?"

He agreed and returned to his breakfast, only to find a swarm of pixies nibbling at his toast. He flicked them off and they flew off to join Sophie in her game.

After they'd all finished eating, the group stood up to leave. Sophie and Vyvyan went in the direction of the Ravenclaw common room and Teddy agreed to meet them later. Lara and Nate went with Elliot to the library, as he was still refusing to believe that one of his favourite authors was a wizard.

* * *

Teddy reached the third floor and walked along a corridor until he reached the stone gargoyle guarding the entrance to the head mistress's office. Teddy was often invited round for afternoon tea in this office so he usually knew what the password was.

"Licorice Allsorts" he said, and the gargoyle moved aside, allowing him onto the spiral staircase.

The moving staircase came to a halt and he stepped off, finding the door already open. He entered and found Minerva McGonagall sat at her desk and several of the portraits greeted him as he entered.

"Ah, here's young Teddy Lupin. Nice to see you again," said the portrait of Armando Dippet and Dexter Fortescue waved. Dumbledore smiled at him from behind McGonagall's desk. Teddy had always loved this room. It was always full of interesting contraptions and instruments, McGonagall had explained that most of these had belonged to Dumbledore and admitted that most of them even she didn't fully understand. She greeted him and he sat down in a chair in front of her desk as she opened a drawer and lifted out a wooden box, placing it carefully on the desk in front of him.


	2. A Tiny Girl with Colourful Pigtails

Teddy slowly lifted the lid and peered inside. There were a few rows of small glass phials each filled with a silvery, swirling liquid. He frowned and looked up at his head mistress.

"What are they?" he asked, feeling a little confused, if not disappointed.

"They're memories," she replied, confusing him further. She reached back into her drawer and handed him a letter.

"Harry wrote you this, perhaps he'll be able to explain it better."

Teddy unfolded the parchment and recognised his godfather's handwriting,

 _Dear Teddy,_

 _You're probably confused about your Christmas present, so I'll try to explain. When I was your age Hagrid gave me a photo album he'd made up of photos my parent's friends had taken of them. I remember how much it had meant to me and I thought of a similar thing I could do for you. This box contains a collection of memories from people who knew your parents, Minerva will show you how they work. I hope you like it._

 _Harry._

He looked back down into the box, at the glass phials neatly arranged inside, both excited and terrified by the prospect of what was inside them. Professor McGonagall showed him the cupboard where the pensieve was kept; exactly as he remembered from Harry's stories he'd loved so much when he was younger.

"Do you have any questions, Teddy?" his head mistress asked.

He shook his head.

"Then I'll leave you. I'm sure Albus will tell you anything you want to know," she said, smiling at his portrait, who nodded. She gathered a few papers off her desk and left.

The box was arranged in chronological order so he selected the first phial: October 1976 – H. Berck-May.

* * *

Teddy landed in a place he recognised as Hogsmeade. Next to him stood a couple of girls in Gryffindor scarves standing outside a shop called Zonko's, Teddy assumed one of them must be H. Berck-May. One pointed down the street past him and the other turned to look, as if they'd just noticed something very exciting. The blonde one turned her head to her friend, keeping her eyes on the spectacle down the street.

"How can you not think James is gorgeous?"

The other just frowned and replied, "He's just so arrogant, I can't stand him. Remus on the other hand…"

Teddy turned around to see four boys he instantly recognised. Leaving the two girls to their bickering and giggling, he walked towards the Marauders, staring in wonder at the boy he knew was his father. The resemblance James and Remus bore to their sons was clear and Teddy worked out the other two must be Peter and Sirius. The boys were standing outside the Three Broomsticks apparently waiting for someone to arrive.

"Why are we even waiting here?" the shortest boy asked.

"Wormtail, I literally just said that," Sirius replied, "my cousin's going to meet us with her daughter."

"Do you actually hear anything we say?" James said, slightly irritably "You should at least try to listen."

"Prongs, please don't start, it doesn't matter." Teddy jumped at the sound of his father's voice. James just scowled and rolled his eyes.

"There she is!" Sirius waved at a woman he saw approaching them, it was only when she got closer that Teddy realised who she was. She greeted them and Sirius introduced her to his friends.

"So there's Peter, James and Remus," he said, pointing to each of the boys in turn, "This is my cousin, Andromeda, and her daughter, Nymphadora," the tiny girl standing at her side waved at them and smiled.

'I like your hair!" James said as he crouched down and pointed at one of her multi-coloured pigtails, at which she turned her hair purple and laughed at the amazement on James' face. They chatted for a few minutes until Andromeda remembered that she had something she needed to post.

"You wouldn't watch Dora for a few minutes, would you?" she asked. The boys agreed so she left her with them and walked back down the street.

James had just noticed the two girls Teddy had been standing next to a few minutes before.

"Look, it's Hannah."

"Oh yeah! The girl Remus won't admit he has a huge crush on."

Remus was the only one not laughing.

"So funny guys. Really, hilarious," Remus replied sarcastically, although he did go a little pink as they continued teasing him.

"Guys, shut up."

"Why? You embarrassed?" Sirius laughed.

"No," Remus replied.

"Sure you're not."

"No. I'm really not. I just thought you might like to know that your little cousin's wandered off."

Sirius jumped and looked around him, swearing loudly and immediately forgetting about teasing his friend.

"Where the hell is she?" he said, searching frantically for her.

"Try looking on the roof," Remus said.

Teddy looked up and laughed, a little girl was sitting above them, seeming to be enjoying herself quite a lot. Sirius went very pale. He put his arms up towards her,

"Come here, Nymphadora, come down,"

She showed no signs of wanting to move.

"Come down, now, or you might hurt yourself," he said, but this didn't seem to bother her, in fact it just made her laugh. Then she looked down at the floor and froze as she realized how high she was. Her face fell and tears began to well in her eyes as she shuffled away from the edge looking terrified. At which point James helpfully commented,

"She'd really hurt herself if she fell from there."

"That's really not very helpful, Prongs," Sirius replied, panicking.

"I never said it was, it's just a fact."

"Really, shut up."

"Why should I?"

"Yeah, why should he?"

"Don't get involved, Wormtail."

"Why shouldn't I get involved?"

"Just shut up!"

"What if I don't want to shut up?"

Remus turned to them, exasperated,

"All of you just stop, you can argue later but right now we need to focus on getting her down."

She was crying now, and getting more and more scared. Remus stepped towards her,

"I have an idea," he announced, "I'll tempt her towards us. Sirius, James, stand either side and get ready to catch her as soon as she comes near the edge. And Peter…" he looked awkwardly at the shortest boy, "run and makes sure Andromeda isn't coming," at which Peter turned and ran off enthusiastically down the street.

Remus took a bar of Honeydukes chocolate out of his pocket and broke off quite a large piece, holding it up just in front of Nymphadora. She stopped crying and reached out a hand, Remus moved it slightly out of her reach and she shuffled closer to the edge. Her legs appeared and Remus gently pulled her forwards so James and Sirius could lower her carefully to the ground. Once on the ground she wiped the tears off her face with her sleeve and munched on the chocolate Remus had given her.

A few seconds later Peter came running back around the corner, shortly followed by Andromeda.

"What are you looking so pleased about?" she asked Sirius when she reached them.

"Nothing," he replied, a little too quickly.

She looked suspicious but didn't press the issue any further. The group entered the Three Broomsticks and James turned to Remus, smiling mischievously,

"I think someone's in love," he muttered, pointing at Nymphadora, who'd attached herself to Remus' arm.

"Shut up, Prongs. That isn't funny," he muttered back. James' laughter was the last thing Teddy heard before the memory faded and he found himself standing again in front of the pensieve in his headmistress' office.

He stood in silence for a few minutes, considering what he'd just watched. Teddy looked up at his reflection in the mirrored wall in front of him; appreciating for the first time how similar his face was to his father's. He closed his eyes for a second, concentrating on the colour and length of Remus' hair. He'd never really worn his hair brown before, but looking up he decided to keep it like this more often.

It reminded him of when he was around seven and he had first started making friends with the children living near him. Around this age he went through a phase of wearing his hair black, something his grandmother hadn't thought anything of until she heard he'd told his friends his name was "Teddy Potter". She hadn't got angry with him or anything, but he remembered how upset she'd looked and how awful he'd felt afterwards so since then he'd kept it blue.

"You look just like your father," one of the portraits behind him commented.

"You remember him?" he said, turning to face them.

Several of them looked at each other, smiling reminiscently.

"How could we forget? Those boys were in here all the time."

Teddy grinned and turned back to the box to take out the next memory, from someone called K. Jameson in March 1977.


	3. Paper Dragons

Teddy found himself in a queue of students waiting outside a Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Next to him a Ravenclaw girl was talking nervously,

"You don't think he'd put the stuff on werewolves into the test, do you?"

"Oh no, I hope not!" exclaimed one of the girls he'd met in the last memory. "I didn't revise any of that. I'm going to do really badly."

"I didn't revise that bit either, you'll both be fine. I'm sure it won't come up anyway," replied another Gryffindor girl. Teddy recognised her face from somewhere but he couldn't work out quite who she was.

He cast his eyes down the line of students, who were all nervous and looking hurriedly through notes, except three boys standing near the back who were muttering to each other, looking excited.

"Do you think he'll manage it?" he heard Peter ask.

"He'd better, it took us ages to get that spell right," Remus replied, "Look, there he is."

Teddy turned and saw Sirius running down the corridor towards them, he grinned and nodded when he saw his friends.

"I did it!" he said, walking straight through Teddy and dumping his bag down next to his friends, clearly exhausted.

"He came out of the Staff Room with them all just there in his hands, so I got a first year to distract him while I did the spell. I think he might have noticed something but I ran before he saw me."

His friends congratulated him and began muttering inaudibly to each other. A minute or so later a teacher came around the corner carrying a pile of papers in his hands, at which the Marauders took out books and pretended to be revising like everybody else.

The students filed into the room and Teddy followed, positioning himself at the back where he could see everything.

"Alright, Evans?" James said, as he passed Lily's desk and Teddy suddenly realised why he'd recognised her before. She looked mildly annoyed but otherwise ignored him and continued comparing notes with her friend.

Once everyone was settled, the teacher asked everyone to put away their things and began handing out the tests. The students went silent and wrote their names on the front while the teacher gave them instructions. Most of the class was listening, hoping to catch any last minute tips, but James, Sirius, Peter and Remus were looking impatient and trying to suppress grins.

"Everyone ready?"

The class groaned.

"You may begin."

They opened their papers and picked up quills but before they'd even had a chance to read the first question they all froze, staring in shock at their papers as they levitated off the desks and sat hovering just above their heads. Then the papers all simultaneously folded themselves in half. Then again, and again, each time making more complicated folds until they all stopped and each student was left with an origami dragon hanging above their heads. The teacher looked very confused.

"I don't see how this happened," he murmured. Then he paused for a second and turned to James.

"It was you, wasn't it?" he shouted, now looking livid and pointing at the boys.

"Please, Sir," he replied, "you haven't even seen the best part yet."

At that moment, the dragons began to flap their wings, fluttering around the classroom with streams of flames shooting from their mouths. Several students screamed and ducked, but the fire didn't seem to be damaging anything. The rest of the class was laughing, clearly delighted at not having to do the test. Teddy even saw Lily smile, but of course she started frowning and pretending to hate the whole idea as soon as she realised James was watching her. He also noticed Lily's Ravenclaw friend had got her dragon to land in her hand and was now stroking it gently between its wings. A dragon on the desk behind her was flapping its wings manically and spitting fire as its owner tickled it with his quill. Others were swooping around the ceiling or landing on people's heads. The teacher made an attempt to catch one but it dodged away and flew back at him angrily, knocking off his hat as it flew past. Teddy caught sight of the name "Remus Lupin" written across its back in neat handwriting as it flew past him on the way back to its owner's desk.

Teddy looked around and laughed at the utter chaos of the room, and was a little disappointed when he saw the memory was beginning to fade.

* * *

He landed in the office with a huge smile on his face and a plan he couldn't wait to share with his friends. He turned to Dumbledore, and put on the most innocent voice he could manage.

"Professor, do you remember the origami dragon incident with my father and his friends?"

"Yes, I believe I do," he replied.

"In that case, I don't suppose you'd happen to remember the spell they used, would you?"

Dumbledore looked at him over his half-moon spectacles and smiled.

"Well, Teddy," he said, "that's an interesting question and the answer depends on the reason you would want to know such a thing."

Teddy considered this a moment, but couldn't come up with any good reasons so he just shrugged and looked back to his box, making a mental note to research the spell later.

The next memory he found was from 1987, given by Amelia Baskerville. He'd met her a few times and knew she'd been friends with his mother in school.


	4. An Eventful Herbology Lesson

Teddy found himself at a table in the Great Hall, sitting next to a Hufflepuff girl with curly brown hair, which she'd pulled back into a ponytail. Another girl with short, pink hair and a loose Hufflepuff tie sat down opposite him and began pouring herself some Cheeri-owls. Teddy rather liked the fact that his mother had been in Hufflepuff. He had friends in his house and felt he was in the right place, but a tiny part of him still disliked being different from the rest of his family.

"Morning, Amelia," she said to her friend.

"Morning, Tonks," she replied, "nice to see you finally got out of bed."

The girls smiled and began talking about homework and how unfair it was, which Teddy quite agreed with.

The girls were just complaining about a particularly difficult Potions essay they'd been set when the owls began to fill the hall, sweeping down from the cloudy sky to land on the tables. A ruffled barn owl landed on the table in front of them, crashing into the Tonks and making her drop her spoon.

"Careful, Rufus!" she said, as she took the letter from him and fed him some of her cereal.

"Anything interesting?" Amelia asked as she paid an owl for the newspaper.

"No, of course not. You know what my mother's like."

Teddy smiled, his grandmother still insisted upon sending letters as often as she could. Some of his friends found it annoying when their parents did that but Teddy actually quite liked it.

Amelia folded her newspaper and glanced down at her watch.

"We should get going to Herbology."

Tonks took a piece of toast to eat on the way as headed towards greenhouse three with Teddy close behind them. The classroom was already full of students when they entered and sat down together on the second row of desks.

"Do you know what we're doing today?" Tonks asked her friend.

"More on bubotubers I think."

Tonks moaned and rolled her eyes. Then she looked up with a smile and began muttering to her friend, who in turn grinned and nodded.

Professor Sprout came in to begin her lesson. The class opened their textbooks and listened to their teacher, who had her back to them and was explaining a diagram on the board. That was when Teddy first noticed the stifled laughter. He looked around in confusion at the members of the class who were shaking slightly and smiling in the way people do when they are trying not to laugh at something they're finding very funny.

A boy on the other side of the room also looked confused and raised his eyebrow at his friend, who nodded across the room. Teddy looked back at his mother and burst into laughter. She'd changed her face and hair to match the teacher's and was currently entertaining the class by pulling unattractive faces and doing silent impressions of Sprout, who hadn't noticed a thing.

"Everyone clear?" Sprout asked, turning to face the class. Everyone nodded enthusiastically while Nymphadora buried her face in "One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi" to change back her face.

Sprout returned her attention to the board looking pleased with herself, clearly thinking the smiles were a result of her students' love of her subject. Again Nymphadora did her impression, changing back and pretending to be taking notes whenever her teacher turned around.

Professor Sprout had just turned to face the board when she suddenly turned back to the class, catching Tonks off guard. She jumped and brought her hands up to hide her face in such a hurry that she knocked over the ink bottle on her table and sent the contents spilling over her friend's work. She looked very apologetic and started searching for her wand.

"I'm sorry! I'll clean it up. I'm far too clumsy," she said as she rummaged through her bag to find her wand, "I'm sure it's in here somewhere."

The class was silent and looking nearly as horrified as Sprout did, something Nymphadora was completely unaware of.

"Ah! Found it," she said triumphantly, pulling her wand from her bag.

"I knew it was-" she broke off mid-sentence. Suddenly her eyes (or, more accurately, Sprout's eyes) widened in shock. She turned back into herself and sat in ashamed silence for a few seconds.

"What's going on?" asked Sprout, who didn't seem to be able to work out whether to laugh or get angry. Tonks had no answer. She just sat in silence. Then slowly a smile beagn to spread across her face until she'd been completely overcome by how funny the situation was and was struggling to suppress her laughter.

"This is not a time to be laughing!" Sprout said, before launching into a lecture about respect, which only seemed to worsen the laughter, which was quickly spreading through the class.

"I think you should leave the room until you've calmed down, Nymphadora."

"I com-completely agree Prof-Professor," she replied through bursts of laughter as she stood up and hurried to the door, although her hysterical laughter could still be heard from outside.

Professor Sprout took a second to regain the class's attention and continued with her lesson as fog began to descend over the room.

* * *

Teddy arrived back in the office grinning. He was a bit too well behaved to do something like that in a lesson but his friends sometimes requested impressions for him to do (their ancient Astronomy teacher was a particular favourite).

"Professor?" he asked Dumbledore, "Do you remember my mother ever pretending to be any of her teachers?"

Dumbledore smiled, as if recollecting a fond memory.

"Ah, yes. Many times."

"Did she get in trouble for it?"

"She did get detentions from some of the staff who took it badly. I, however, thought this was most unfair and got her out of as many as I could. After all, I thought it most amusing to see her do the same to me."

Teddy had a feeling his head mistress wouldn't like it quite so much as Dumbledore did, but he could think of a few teachers it was worth a try on. He made another mental note to talk to Elliot and Nate about it when he saw them later.


	5. Interesting Muggle Artefacts

**Hi,  
** **I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed the last chapters and sorry this one has taken a while. This isn't a very long chapter, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.**

* * *

Teddy uncorked the next phial and tipped the contents into the Pensieve, before placing it back in the box. This one was from 1995 and had been given by someone called Hestia Jones, someone whose name he knew but couldn't remember ever meeting. He lent over and entered her memory.

* * *

The room he was standing in was full of quiet muttering. It was quite dark but the streetlight outside was casting a glow over the room, showing a group of people making their way very slowly across a kitchen. There were eight people Teddy could see. He recognised about half of them. Kingsley Shacklebolt was standing next to him, and just in front of him stood his father. Next to Remus was Tonks, who was noticeably much younger than the others and currently had spiky, purple hair. Teddy also recognised Dedelus Diggle, who was wearing a violet top hat and grinning excitedly.

"Are we sure Harry's even in?" asked a witch in a green shawl.

"He's sleeping in a room upstairs," replied Moody, his eye spinning around, searching the rooms of the house.

"Should we get him then?" asked Tonks.

"That's what we're doing to do. Can everyone be a little quieter, please? We don't want to scare him," Teddy's father said softly.

Most of them completely ignored this request.

"What's that for?" Hestia Jones asked, pointing at the radio on the side.

"Maybe it's an intruder detection device," suggested a blond wizard vaguely.

The group froze, staring in silence at the mysterious box.

"I seriously doubt it's dangerous though," he added, seeing everyone's expressions.

"I think I should destroy it before we walk past just in case," Moody decided.

"No, Mad-Eye!" hissed Kingsley, "That might set it off!"

"Everybody calm down," said Tonks, who wasn't making too much of an effort to be quiet, "My dad had one of those. I think he called it the "Radio" and I don't remember it ever being at all dangerous."

The group relaxed a little and continued moving, although Moody was still eyeing the radio suspiciously. They didn't get far before they came across another interesting muggle object.

"I wonder what this does?" said Diggle, picking up the telephone and looking expectantly at Tonks.

She thought for a moment.

"I think it called a Fellytone…" she began, " or maybe it's a TellingPhone, I'm not sure. I think Muggles use them to talk to each other when they're outside earshot."

Diggle looked impressed and placed it back very carefully. Then for a few seconds he stood there, staring in wonder at the object on the notepad next to the phone.

"It's a quill that's already full of ink!" he said excitedly, picking it up and scribbling over the page of neatly written numbers and addresses.

"Right everyone," said Remus, "why don't we leave the muggle things alone. We don't want to startle Harry by making too much noise. Also, I seriously doubt this Muggle family will be too happy when they get back if they find all of their possessions have been moved."

"Especially after the disappointment at the Lawn Competition," Tonks muttered with a grin as she picked up a long, black thing off a chair.

"I'd leave that alone if I were you, Nymphadora. We don't know what it does."

"Don't call me Nymphadora. Call me Tonks," she corrected, still holding the remote control in her hand and prodding curiously at the buttons. Lupin sighed and shook his head slightly.

"Tonks, I really think it would be best if..." he broke off mid-sentence. He'd been interrupted by a loud gasp as the TV screen behind him turned on and a woman's voice began advertising mattresses.

"Who's there?" cried Mad-Eye, who drew his wand and pointed it towards the source of the voice.

"Stop it!" Kingsley hissed at Tonks.

"It wasn't me!" she replied

"It was. That… that thing you're holding. It must be some kind of wand."

The wheezy-voiced wizard frowned and looked distrustfully at the "wand".

"This is all very strange," he whispered, shaking his head, "I don't like all this muggle stuff. They must be using secret magic."

"I'm trying to stop it but I don't know how!" Tonks said, as she pressed madly at the remote, causing the TV to flick between channels and increase steadily in volume.

"I can't read any of the symbols on the buttons," she said in a slightly panicked voice, "it must be some form of ancient runic."

"You haven't tried the red one at the top," suggested Remus.

She pressed the power button and the screen went blank, much to everyone's relief.

"Right," Lupin continued, "it's a miracle that Harry hasn't woken up already and thought there were burglars in his kitchen. So if you all stay here I'll quietly make my way to the…"

He was interrupted again by a loud crash. Nymphadora froze staring at the broken plate on the floor, which had been knocked off as she walked past.

"Well, I for one see no point in being quiet now. Let's just tell him we're here," said the witch in the green shawl as she walked into the hall, followed by the crowd of witches and wizards.

Remus nodded and followed them, waving his wand at the plate on his way out. The plate repaired itself and put itself neatly back on the table.

Teddy heard them greet Harry in the hall as silvery mist began descending over the room and he felt his feet land on the office floor once more.


	6. Cutting up Carrots

Teddy smiled to himself. He'd enjoyed these memories, and was a little disappointed when he looked down into the box and noticed that he only had two left. There hadn't been any from his father's students yet, although he'd heard plenty of stories about his lessons. Perhaps that meant he'd get another box at some point, he thought. He'd like that a lot. The next one was from his grandmother in November 1996.

* * *

The room he found himself in was familiar. He was back at home in his grandmother's sitting room, although it looked as though things had moved around a little in the last 12 years. The room was also much less tidy than Teddy could ever remember it being, he assumed this must have been his grandfather's influence. Andromeda herself was sitting by the fireplace in her armchair. Her hair looked significantly darker than Teddy had seen before. She was holding a newspaper, headlined "SIX MUGGLES DEAD IN MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. DEATH EATERS SUSPECTED."

In front of her Nymphadora was pacing and wringing her hands nervously, pausing every few seconds to stare impatiently into the fire.

Andromeda sighed and stopped reading to look up at her daughter.

"Dora, please. You've been like this all day. Brooding isn't going to change anything, come and sit down and think of something else."

She nodded and perched herself awkwardly on Teddy's armchair and opened a book Ted had left on the carpet, although her eyes remained fixed on the fire.

The women sat in silence. The only sound that could be heard was a faint patter of rain. After a few minutes, she stood up again and continued her anxious pacing. Andromeda sighed again and folded up her newspaper.

"There's no need to be worried, sweetheart, you know perfectly well that Remus is quite capable of looking after himself. He'll be alright. You've both done things like this before."

"I know, I know," she murmured, "but maybe…" she trailed off and began chewing her lip anxiously.

Andromeda gave up attempting to comfort her and tried a different tactic.

"Why don't we start making dinner? We can do it together without magic like we used to do when you were little, it'll be fun."

Teddy smiled as fond memories of cooking with his grandmother came back to him.

Nymphadora didn't seem particularly keen on the idea but she followed her mother through to the kitchen where Andromeda was rummaging through the cupboards in search of ingredients.

"Could you look after the carrots, please?" Andromeda asked, although she didn't get a response from her daughter, who was gazing at the clock with a vacant expression.

"Dora!" she tried again, "Carrots!"

"Sure, carrots, I'll do that," she said, opening the drawers to find a knife while Andromeda set to work preparing the potatoes.

The two women stood silently for a few minutes, working distractedly.

"Ow!" Nymphadora's knife fell from her hand, clattering on the tiles as a drop of blood ran down her hand.

"Oh, Nymphadora. What have you done? Let me see," Andromeda said as she took out her wand. Tonks held out her hand like a child and let her mother heal it.

The cut dealt with, she took another knife out of the drawer and continued cutting up carrots. The pile of vegetables was getting rather large now, but both women seemed too preoccupied to notice.

Nymphadora glanced nervously at the clock and went to the window to stare out into the rain. She looked across at her mother and frowned.

"It's nearly quarter to six. He said I'd hear news by half five. Are you sure there haven't been any owls today?"

"My dear, you've asked me that at least four times today and my answer hasn't changed. If I'd heard from anyone, I'd tell you," she said. Then, seeing the expression on her daughter's face, added, "There's no need to worry, the rain's probably slowed down the owl, it'll be here any minute."

"Yeah, I bet that's what's happened. Or maybe he's busy or couldn't find an owl or he forgot to write or something," she suggested, although this did little to reassure her.

"Whatever it is, standing there staring at the sky won't make news come any sooner," Andromeda said, motioning for her to continue helping with cooking.

She nodded and reluctantly left the window but as soon as she picked up her knife, there came a loud tapping sound. Perched on the windowsill was a large, grey owl, who collapsed, soaking, onto the table as soon as he'd been let in. Nymphadora ran over and tore the note from his leg. She unrolled it and sighed with relief at the sight of Remus' handwriting, which Teddy was impressed to see was even neater than his. Her eyes skimmed over the paper, rereading the short note several times. Andromeda leaned over her shoulder and smiled.

"I told you there wouldn't be anything to worry about," she said, "It even looks like he'll back in time to join us for dinner, that'll be nice. It's a shame he doesn't like carrots though… I think we might have prepared a few too many."

Nymphadora looked up at the pile of sliced carrots and laughed as the room became foggy and the memory ended.

* * *

Teddy stood for a few minutes in thoughtful silence. He was still smiling, although he noticed with a slight shock that his cheeks felt a little wet. He dried his eyes hastily, hoping none of the portraits had noticed. A quick glance at the wall assured him they were all asleep, though if he'd looked for a few moments longer he might have noticed the slightly open eyes and suspiciously dramatic snoring.

He felt a strange mixture of emotions at that moment, but mainly joy at finally being able to know his parents as more than simply faces in photographs and names in stories told over dinner.

Now there was only one phial left. His hand shook slightly as he picked it up and uncorked it, pouring it carefully into the swirling silver.


End file.
